Joel Edgerton Quotes

In the best stories, people are morally complex; they are flawed. We read them because the world is flawed, and we want to see it truthfully represented. And because it can be thrilling to be shocked and upset, and even to feel, for chilling moments, what it's like to be a bad person.

Filmmakers tell stories to explore human nature, which is always a flawed thing.

I don't think anyone sets out to be the evil villain.

In all our pictures, we had an antagonist who becomes the good guy, and the underdog fulfills his quest.

I like characters who are changed, often for the better, by the dark nature of their experiences. I also can become engaged by a character for whom I wish to see justice done, one way or the other. In general, I require a book to have some sort of moral center.

I don't play the role of a villain, really, but I like playing anti-hero kind of roles. I like characters where there's conflict, drama, and more personal investment than just being heroes.

Clearly, I'm drawn to characters with inner conflicts.

Life - the way it really is - is a battle not between Bad and Good but between Bad and Worse.

I am no longer a criminal. I gave up that practice years ago.

It's great to have the chance to play a character before he goes to the dark side, or the yellow side if you will. Normally, you don't get that opportunity. The narrative of a movie usually demands that you are that guy from the start.

For me, one of the most beautiful and rewarding aspects of serial reality TV is that characters can move freely along a spectrum of heroism and villainy.

The best characters to play are the ones who have deep internal conflict.

You can't have virtue without sin. What I'm after is having my characters' virtues defined by how they operate in a very sinful environment. That's how you test people.

Thrillers provide the reader with a safe escape into a dangerous world where the stakes are as high as can be imagined with unpredictable outcomes. It's a perfect genre in which to explore hard issues of good and evil, a mirror that allows the reader to see both the good and not so good in themselves.

What I always studied in screenwriting from my mentor John Glavin was that the most interesting characters are characters with shades of gray.

When it's a moral grey zone, the audience has to think about what they feel and what they think is right or wrong. You want to affect your audience and make them think.

It's fun to play a character who lives on the edge, who is an ethical and moral mess, and is paying the price for some of his actions.

I'm drawn to the classic antihero, the guy who's probably made a bunch of mistakes and really has the capacity to go either way. That's the most interesting type of character for me to watch, to see what decisions they'll make. There's a lot of gray area there for a writer to explore.

What I read and what I go to the movies for is not to find a best friend, not to find inspirations, not necessarily for a hero's journey. It's to be involved with characters that are maybe incredibly different from me, that may be incredibly bad but that feel authentic.

I enjoy played flawed men who are pushed to the limit, who make mistakes and then have to recover.

I tend to always love material with flawed protagonists and morally ambiguous people.

It's great to be able to play the 'bad guy' role, because you always get a lot to do, but I'm always looking at the why - how does a person get to that particular point.

Namor has shades of grey but always ends up doing the right thing. I've played characters with an edge - played villains if not super villains - and he's an anti-hero.

That's just what 'The 100' does. They like to put their characters in a position where no decision is the right one, you know? You have to kind of just hope that it works out.

With all due respect to the other writers, I don't want to disparage any other writers; I don't want to have to invent a bigger villain than Deathstroke so Deathstroke can seem heroic fighting this bigger villain. I'd rather just have Deathstroke be who is, and he's kind of a bastard.